Art History in “Dune”

While reading Dune, I noticed two different architectural styles the author Frank Herbert used to associate with the two Great Houses Atreides and Harkonnen. When the Atreides family moves to Arrakis and start organizing their main home, the text described the room’s housetop that my research led to images of vaulted buildings. In fact, I looked up images by typing in the architecture used by Herbert and these images came up. Later in the book, the Harkonnens play a game that uses architecture most famously associated with Ancient Egypt. Religion is a major theme in Dune, and the architecture found in the links I embedded are famously associated with houses of worship. Fitting given how both Houses have heirs who plan to be the anointed ruler of Arrakis.